10 Actors Who Turned Down Roles In MCU Movies

The Rejected Role: The vengeful leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston in the final film.

What Happened?: Mainstream audiences likely first came to know Mikkelsen from his fantastic villainous role in Casino Royale. While he's shown that he has much more range in movies like Valhalla Rising and The Hunt, there's no denying how effective he is as the baddie. The MCU looked to capitalize on those skills for Thor's second solo outing.

Unfortunately the dreaded scheduling conflicts barred Mikkelsen from taking the role which he actually seemed excited for:

"Yeah, that's not happening unfortunately. I had a meeting with them, but they were a little too late. And then 'Hannibal' came in, and everything just came in the same period, so now it's not happening."

For Better Or Worse?

I don't think it's controversial to say that Malekith is Marvel's dullest villain and little to none of that is Eccleston's fault. I don't think even an actor of Mikkelsen's abilities could wring anything out of such a thinly written character.

Luckily, Mikkelsen was given a second chance, as he'll be doing battle with Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange this fall. Here's hoping it's a villain worthy of his considerable talents.